A man who says a Big Mac is his "perfect food" has now eaten 30,000 of the McDonald's burgers.

"This one is a biggie for me," retired prison officer Don Gorske said as he reached the culinary milestone in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin.

It was something he had been "looking forward to", local media reported.

According to the Fond du Lac Reporter, the 64-year-old "Big Mac maniac" gave a "half-hour presentation" to a crowd that gathered to watch him consume the milestone meal.

He scoffed the all-beef patty with special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles and onions (all on a sesame-seed bun) at the restaurant where he had his first.

The outlet, on Military Road, was the only one in Fond du Lac when Mr Gorske began his nutritional adventure, shortly after getting his driving licence in 1972.

Image:Don Gorske says a Big Mac is his 'perfect food'

In Morgan Spurlock's 2004 documentary Supersize Me, he explained: "As soon as I got my first car, this is the first place I came to.

"The first day I came here I ate nine Big Macs. It was like I couldn't get enough hamburger at that time."

Mr Gorske, who proposed to his wife under the golden arches in a McDonald's car park, said people "like to see proof" of his consumption.

To that end, he keeps thousands of receipts, sandwich wrappers and containers.

But while he has lots of detail to document his obsession, he did lose about 7,000 Styrofoam cartons in a tornado in 1990. They were "all over the place", he said.

Image:Mr Gorske has documented his burger diet

According to the McDonald's website, there are 540 calories in a Big Mac, and 28g of fat.

The NHS advises: "If you currently eat more than 90g (cooked weight) of red and processed meat a day, the Department of Health advises that you cut down to 70g, which is the average daily consumption in the UK."

As for Mr Gorske, it does not bother him if people joke about his diet.

"People make fun of me, but it never bothered me," he said.

"At my last medical check-up I had low cholesterol and my blood pressure was perfect."

Explaining his dietary choices, he wrote in a book that "everything about eating Big Macs every day was perfect.

"I never had to cook. It was fast and ready within minutes after I left work every day.

"I never had a craving for something different. I had found my perfect food.

"The stress of having to eat a non-McDonalds meal was over."

While he has consumed almost two Big Macs every say on average, with "approximately 90%" of his "solid diet" probably coming from them, there have been blips.

"No Big Mac happened on August 13, 1994," he wrote in his book. "I didn't know it was possible to drive 600 miles and not see a McDonalds."

Another burger-less day was when his mother died in 1988, after she "requested I not eat a Big Mac on (that) day, in remembrance of her".

The Big Mac connoisseur is dismissive of other burger chains, saying he has only eaten one Burger King Whopper.